The Line

Here's what Film directing: Shot by Shot has to say on a very important concept; the line of action.

The line of action organizes camera angles to preserve consistent screen direction and space and organizing the shooting plan. The line is an imaginary partition going through the space in front of the camera can be anywhere the director chooses but it is usually placed along the line of sight between two subjects. With the line determined a working space of 180 degrees is established and only positions within the semi circle are permitted. Placing filming from the other side will make for a confusing and uncomfortable image.

Here is a rather crude rendition I did of a typical triangle setup. The batteries represent the cameras, the purple paper the 180 degree working space. The cameras here are set up in what is known as the triangle set up, common in T.V. Of course all kinds of angles can be obtained here, the most common being over the shoulder shots, POV (point of view) and profile shots.

There are a few ways for the camera to move from behind the line and working space though.

If one monkey were to get up and walk towards the other, turning 90 degrees in the process then a new line of sight would be developed. Although the working area is shown here to be on one side it can just as easily be on the other. What's important is that the area that the camera is placed in is adhered to once the new sight line is established.

A new sight line can also be established if a new player enters the scene.

Finally if the camera moves - i.e a pan or dolly or if there is a cutaway shot then the line can also be crossed.

Close-ups, Mediums and Fulls.

Here's more from Film Directing: Shot by Shot by Steven D.Katz

Close-ups have become more popular thanks to television what with the small size of the screen. They are commonly used for dialogue and for lower budget work as they are easier to light. More than anything though close-ups are useful for showing eyes in detail as the eyes are the most expressive feature of the human face: winks, glances, stares, tears, squints and glares are all some of the most communicating human gestures. The eye line of a subject clearly determines spacial relations in the scene and the viewer can easily detect incongruities in the sight lines between subjects.

I used my monkeys to do a quick mock up of a pair of close ups that would be used for a conversation scene. I've also included a wider angle photo showing how the characters are positioned.

Then there are extreme close ups. These are usually given to eyes and mouths but they can work elsewhere too.

Medium and Full Shots

The medium shot combines the useful qualities of the full shot and the close-up. It captures body gesture but can still show a reasonable amount of facial expression. Medium shots are also the standard for composing group shots for dialogue scenes.

Full shots are an alternative to the medium or close-up. They have gone out of fashion a little and are now usually reserved to connecting a character and location in a single shot. Their lack of popularity has a lot to do with their dependence on dialogue scenes being played out in long takes. This is because a long shot often frames all the speaking characters in a scene making cutting (more convenient for a number of reasons) unnecessary. It will often look unsettling to cut between full shots, mediums and especially close-ups as close-ups more than any of the others must be accompanied by other close-ups. Full shots are best for exhibiting actors body language, hence their prominence in silent film.

When making music videos, the combination of close-ups and mediums is the normal language used. Music videos by their nature usually employ a fast editing technique to catch your attention, which probably explains their hypnotic effect when placed on the wall of a bar. Close ups are also far easier to light and seeing as music videos have less budget producers frequently demand close-ups to be shot as they are simply cheaper. Below are a few contemporary videos that I feel exemplify the right way to go about making a video using the fast cutting together of close-ups and mediums with the occasional full or even wide shot.

Shot Size

To learn about shot sizes I consulted Film Directing: Shot by Shot by Steven D. Katz.

In cinema there is a standard range of shot sizes. They are all quite clearly defined.

However different shot sizes are arranged proportionally i.e they are not defined in terms of absolute measurements. The shot is therefore defined in terms of what proportion of the subject takes up the frame and the framing. For example whilst an extreme wide shot of a mountain will be viewing a larger amount of space than an extreme wide shot of a house - because the subject (the mountain) is obviously bigger - they are however still of course deemed extreme wide shots as they both have the same relationship with the subject.

Here's a little demonstration I did with a kinder egg toy. The toy is of course tiny...

The first image is a wide shot of the subject, the second a long shot. Of course seeing as the subject is about the size of a thumb the difference in the physical distance covered is only a foot or two. If these two shots were done with a car as the subject, the difference in distance from the subject in the second photo would be a matter of meters.

More Lens Language

Here's a little more I gleaned from Cinematography: Theory and Practice by Blain Brown.

Selective Focus:

Frequently focus is used to highlight certain aspects of a scene. A common use is during dialogue. Combined with an OTS shot (over the shoulder) you highlight the subject, as demonstrated below with a few screenshots from the channel four show Misfits.

Of course the focus can be changed mid shot to highlight any changes. This is known as a rack focus. Here is test of one I found.

Generally speaking the focus puller remembers these points

• Focus goes to the person speaking, you can of course rack back and forth.
• Focus goes to the person facing the camera or most prominent in the frame.
• Focus goes to the person experiencing the most dramatic or emotional moment. This may go against the principle of focusing on the person speaking.
• When in doubt put the focus on the actor with the lower number on the call sheet.

Lens Language

Now that I've entered my third year I'm going right down to the basics and focusing on building my skills from the ground up. As my previous blog would suggest I'm choosing to focus on filmmaking, and for the most part - seeing as it's where I feel I lack the most experience - focus on Cinematography. So for the next nine months I'm going to be pulling out all the stops; reading books and doing test shoot after test shoot.

I thought I'd do some basic research on lenses seeing as I still don't really know a lot about them. I consulted Cinematography: Theory and Practice by Blain Brown for some answers.

After placing the camera in relation to the subject it is time for the lens choice. The lens choice will affect a number of major parameters.

Field of view: this is the width that one is able to see. For example an 18mm lens has a view of about 76 degrees and and 600mm lens has a view of about 2 degress.

This is taken with a 28mm lens, hence the depth and wide view of the rocks.

Depth of field: this relates to how much of the image in focus. An 18mm lens will have more in focus than a 600 mm lens.

A 200mm zoom lens only allows the foreground to be in focus.

This photo I found is a great demonstrator of focal length alongside shallow and deep focus.

Focal length: a long focal length simply means that the image is zoomed in further, similar to looking through a telescope. The focal length also effects the depth of the image though. Objects appear to be less of a distance from each other and the image appears flatter.

So the greater field of view, the deeper the depth of field, the longer the focal length and the lesser the compression of distance.

Below is a table of lens types and fields of view.

18mm: 76 degrees

25mm: 51 degrees

32mm: 39 degrees

50mm: 25 degrees

85mm: 14 degrees

135mm: 9 degrees

300mm: 4 degrees

600mm: 2 degrees

Starting at around 0.44 this shot from Citizen Kane effectively uses deep focus to allow action and objects to be visible on multiple planes. In this way one is able to show a great deal of detail without having to resort to multiple shots. Here we see Kane's ill wife, her glass and medicine and the reaction of Kane himself all in one shot.

Here is a good example from the film Anuva Hood of a wide lens being used to show the subject within his entire environment. With such a wide lens you can see a fair bit of distortion, note the slightly curvy left hand wall in particular. I for one like this distortion as it adds to any intended comical effect.